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Richard Kallweit

The use of artistic means to discover mathematical concepts is essential to my work. These include use of materials(paint, wood and so on) close observations, long periods of contemplation and a developed sense of play. I believe that the intuitive and playful aspects of art expression can lead to many unexpected discoveries in art and math.

All the possibilities (Viscek fractal)

60inx60in

acrylic on canvas

1976

Growing up my favorite reading besides art books and Mad Magazine was Scientific American. Of course, the Martin Gardner section was my favorite. That led me in college to looking at the inscrutable books (for me) in the math library and then on to all available pop math /science books since.
This particular painting uses some simple algorithms to construct the whole. At the time I made this painting I did not consciously know what I was doing or even know what an algorithm was. That came later. I was just trying out some ideas and trying to make a beautiful painting.

Section 43

5ftx7ft

acrylic on canvas

1972

I was fooling around with skinny and fat 72 degree tiles and thought I would fit them together to form larger versions of themselves. They couldn't quite do this without leaving a very jagged edge. If carried out far enough the ragged edge would flatten out. Early on I had seen some of John Conway's reptiles and that was, in part, an inspiration for this painting.

Green and Yellow Buddhas

48inx48in

acrylic on canvas

1977

This painting is based on a tic tac toe grid. I blocked out a particular color pattern . The algorithm was that for each higher resolution every time a line was passed a color would change thus the resulting pattern. The result at first was not predicted and this strange snowflake gradually emerged.